Free Republic

The immigration lawyers who import H-1B visa workers for U.S. companies are urging President Donald Trump’s deputies to extend the expiring work permits for hundreds of thousands of foreign contract workers during the nation’s unprecedented economic meltdown. The pleas come after the GOP-majority Senate shut down a push by the Democrat-run House to extend the deadline for many types of expiring visas and work permits. The permits are used by employers to replace Americans in U.S. jobs with hundreds of thousands of foreign contract workers, including H-1B graduates. If Trump’s administration agrees to extend the deadlines, it would prevent Americans...

The Senate was burning the midnight oil but they finally managed to hold a vote and unanimously decide to take ten percent of the national GDP and light it on fire late last night. The final coronavirus relief package cleverly named the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) passed on a 96-0 vote. The final price tag will come in at slightly more than two trillion (with a “T”) dollars. Of course, it can’t go to the President’s desk unless Nancy Pelosi decides to hold a vote on it later this morning, but we’ll get to that...

Will this tide us over until the end of June? And will Congress have to do this all over again if not? The Senate passed a massive relief bill last night aimed at rescuing the economy from free-fall during the coronavirus pandemic, and did so on a 96-0 unanimous vote. But just how much relief does $2.2 trillion buy?Three months, said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, although he hopes we don’t end up testing whether it’s sufficient for that much inactivity: The package is intended as relief for an economy spiraling into recession or worse and a nation facing a...

The fight is over, but it is not entirely clear who won: Hulk Hogan has finally settled a sex-tape lawsuit that has been dragging on for years. The former pro wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, had been seeking $110m (£94m) from talkshow hosts at Florida-based Cox Radio, who he accused of leaking a video showing him having sex and using racist language. The case was supposed to go to a jury trial next January but a confidential settlement reached on Thursday means that will now be avoided. I don’t want to think about Hogan naked any more than...

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. It’s Andrea Mitchell. So that basically makes this just another day ending in a “Y,” but this is kind of remarkable even for her. In the middle of her show yesterday, Mitchell was talking to Jim Messina, a former Obama administration official, and expressed what’s apparently worrying her the most in the midst of a pandemic that’s killed more than one thousand Americans and sickened tens of thousands more. President Trump’s approval rating might “skyrocket” as this thing drags on and Joe Biden is almost nowhere to be seen. (MRC) During her 12:00...

An expert on South Korean politics who became a global superstar after his serious interview on the BBC was gatecrashed by his curious children and stressed-out wife has appeared on the news again today - to reveal that his son and daughter are 'climbing the walls' during their coronavirus isolation. Professor Robert Kelly's appearance on BBC News via a video link in March 2017 became an instant sensation after his daughter Marion, then four, burst into her father's office for the world to see, with her baby brother James hot on her heels in his walker. Their unflappable father, who...

Donald Trump plays a different game of chess. He thinks several moves ahead, as any chess master would, but he also plays multiple games simultaneously. He contends with a confrontational media, an insatiable Democratic House leadership, and ill prepared state government–managed health care facilities. Trump would be amazed should he get true bipartisan support in his effort to stem the coronavirus crisis. Trump chose to express his desire for a return to normal. He hoped America could reopen by Easter. The media immediately rushed to condemn him. But when his tweet Sunday evening was sent out, was he trying to...

The global coronavirus pandemic has thrown the United States (like most of the rest of the world) into a sort of quasi-organized chaos. All across the country, businesses, health care systems, governments and schools have been disrupted. In my own field of higher education, most colleges and universities have been forced to close live, in-person classes and move entirely to online instruction. As someone who teaches courses in entrepreneurship and innovation, this is a riveting phenomenon to watch, a case study unfolding in real time. Since the early 2000s, I have taught from author Clayton Christensen's seminal 1997 book, "The...

Dow Industrials are up by 3% in first half hour of trading. This begins a third day of market increases, even after record unemployment claims of 3.283 million announce prior to market open.

Coronavirus is an icky disease that takes a cruel toll on the elderly, the sick, and the unlucky. In this modern era, we can outwit many things that once routinely killed people, but the Grim Reaper is still out there and he’ll eventually get all of us. Scary headlines have hinted that coronavirus is now the Grim Reaper's preferred method. Media reports have told us that coronavirus is significantly more deadly than the flu, which annually kills 30,000 to 60,000 Americans. Based on the speed with which it killed in China, Italy, Iran, and Spain, it looked as if the...

Steve Sisolak, the leftist governor of Nevada, decided to play doctor by banning the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, two drugs that are being used elsewhere to treat COVID-19.  "While these drugs serve necessary medical purposes, this regulation protects the Nevadans who need them and prevents unnecessary hoarding," Sisolak wrote on Twitter. Unneccessary hoarding? The hoarding thing is a smokescreen, his real reason was to slap at President Trump who touted these medications as showing promise, and even mistakenly said they had been approved for use by the FDA. That's his real reason for the limit on the unproven drug, which goes against the...

UnitedHealth Group rolled out a self-swab coronavirus test in Seattle on Monday and hopes to roll it out to more states as soon as possible. Self-administered tests can spare health care workers, who normally administer such tests, from germs spread by a patient's cough or sneeze. UnitedHealth released details of its 500-patient study that found self-swab tests to be as accurate as physician-administered tests on Wednesday. "We know that broad, rapid and accurate testing is essential to addressing the COVID-19 crisis, yet the current clinician-administered process significantly limits testing capacity, puts frontline health care workers at risk of COVID-19 exposure,...

We aren’t going to get too far out over our skis on this, because after all we’re in the middle of a sell-a-thon of tickets and sponsorships for Hayride tour events that right now we’re not able to put on (see here for the skinny on that, and feel free to participate!) – but yesterday Peter Kovacs, the editor of the New Orleans Advocate, blasted out an e-mail which essentially begged the public for contributions. Here’s what that looked like… Of course, The Advocate is owned by John Georges, who as everyone in Louisiana knows by now is richer than...

Alyssa Milano is calling on President Donald Trump to convert his hotels in the United States to hospitals to help sick people during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The actress, who has been sharing support for healthcare workers and is a notorious critic of the Trump administration, took to Twitter on Wednesday to call on the president to take action to help the country, specifically people in his home state of New York, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make people sick across the nation. “Trump owns how many hotels in the US? And how many in NY in particular?” Milano...

Rosemary Gibson is senior advisor at the Hastings Center and a national authority on health care reform. In 2014, she won the highest honor from the American Medical Writers Association. She is an editor for JAMA Internal Medicine. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Speaking to journalist Sharyl Attkisson in an April 23, 2018, interview,  Gibson warned: "What happens if we have a Fukushima type event or the trade routes are blocked in the South China Sea? Or if there's a global pandemic? And the United States and virtually every other country...

Go to the main page, look to the left under Trump Administration, and you will see where it says it's at an all-time high(47%). https://www.realclearpolitics.com/

Shawnee State University in southern Ohio (cross the bridge and you’re in Kentucky) is an open-admissions school that opened in 1986. It’s very little known, but the school’s administrators are as politically attuned to progressive sensibilities as any across the nation. A case that has arisen at Shawnee threatens to set a terrible precedent for the suppression of speech that any “woke” student claims to find harassing. Nicholas Meriwether has been on the Shawnee faculty since 1996, teaching political science. He has risen to the rank of full professor with the equivalent of tenure. In a course on political philosophy...

Instead of Spurgeon today: According to Wall Street’s “Fear-Greed Index,” it is “Extreme Fear” that is driving the market right now in the wake of COVID-19. It’s not just the coronavirus. Everybody seems to be anxious, checking the 24-hour news cycles for the next jolt to our insecurity. Besides their health, many are afraid of losing their job or personal freedom. Many are gripped by the fear of economic collapse, while others are anxious about environmental collapse. Many Christians are fearful of the collapse of a thinly-veiled Christian order. Others worship security and therefore are fearful of anyone and anything...

Robyn Ross received the call on a Friday. With COVID-19 patients threatening to overwhelm the nation’s hospitals, her OB-GYN would be transferring to virtual appointments. “For how long?” Ross asked. For the foreseeable future.Due to deliver April 24 at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, where Virginia’s first COVID-19 case was quarantined in early March, Ross’ plan for birth care is now riddled with uncertainty.Hospitals around the nation have employed quick-response crisis policies, with visitor restrictions in most major metropolises. The decision in major hospital systems across the nation, including New York-Presbyterian, Central Illinois, Central Texas, and all San Francisco hospitals,...

Private Purchasers at Gun Turn In event Courtesy Dean Weingarten Headlines were screaming panic. The old man was prepared and working on the computer when the phone rang. As has become a necessity, the number on the phone I.D. was examined. An old friend, trusted and proven, was on the other end. “Have you got any guns you are willing to part with?”“Maybe. I haven't done an inventory in a bit. Let me check.” The FBI NICS background check lines were full. The system was overloaded. Store shelves were empty. Approvals defaulted to three days wait.Some buyers were panicked. There...